In connection with surgery for a number of diseases in the gastro-intestinal tract, one of the consequences in many cases is that the patient is left with an abdominal stoma, such as a colostomy or an ileostomy in the abdominal wall for the discharge of visceral contents. The discharge of visceral contents cannot be regulated at will. For that purpose, the user will have to rely on an appliance to collect the material emerging from such an opening in a bag, which is later emptied and/or discarded at a suitable time.
An ostomy appliance may be in the form of a two-piece appliance comprising an ostomy wafer and a collecting bag which may be coupled to and un-coupled from each other through a coupling, or a one-piece appliance where the ostomy wafer is permanently coupled to a collecting bag and when the collecting bag is replaced the ostomy wafer is removed from the skin surface of the user.
The stoma is usually located close to the abdominal area of the user, or it may sometimes be located elsewhere if the abdominal area is not suited for having the stoma. The stoma usually exits via an opening the abdominal wall of the user and is fixed in position by suturing a part of the stoma to the opening in the abdominal wall. This means that the area surrounding the stoma may be subjected to movements in the abdominal wall due to movements of the user, such as during exercise, bending over, bending backwards, and so on. Furthermore, the area surrounding the stoma is affected by the layers of cutaneous and sub-cutaneous tissue, such as the thickness of the skin and the thickness of fat layers, etc.